"If there is paradise on earth, it is here, it is here"

This blog is written by Manju Misra in Hindi. A translation is available as you go along..

अस्ति उत्तरस्याम दिशिदेवतातत्मा हिमालयोंनाम नगाधिराजः

पूर्वापरा क्षीर निधिएव गाहेय स्थितपृथिव्या इवमानदंड;

हिमालय पृथ्वी का मानदंड है. हिमालय की भव्य बर्फीली चोटियों को पहली बार करीब से देखकर मैं चित्रवत खड़ी रह गई. रानीखेत, शिमला, कश्मीर में गुलमर्ग तथा श्रीनगर, हर जगह प्रकृति ने अपना समस्त वैभव ही मानो लुटा डाला है. 

The Himalayas are the ultimate milestone of our earth. Seeing them up close for the first time in my life, I was stunned by the beauty of the graceful snow peaks. Whether in Ranikhet, Shimla or Gulmarg or Srinagar in Kashmir, it seems as though nature chose these mountains to do its most sublime work.

कश्मीर तो धरती पर स्वर्ग ही है. बचपन से ही कश्मीर जाने की इच्छा मन में थी पर पहले अपने परिवार की मजबूरियां थीं, फिर वहाँ पर आतंकवाद का कहर था जिससे हम चाह कर भी जा नहीं पाए थे. सौरभ ने वहाँ जाने का तय किया और हमें भी चलने को कहा. अभी भी वहाँ आये दिन आतंकवाद की छुटपुट ख़बरें आती रहती हैं पर जी कडा कर हम चल दिए. पर सबसे पहले आपको हम शिमला लिए चलते हैं जहाँ हम दिल्ली में आनवी का जन्मदिन मनाते हुए गए.

Kashmir is a veritable paradise on earth. Having grown up hearing of its fabled beauty, I have been wanting to go there since I was a child. But first the limitation was of my own young family, and then when we could think of going, terrorism reared its ugly head in the valley, making it impossible to even think of traveling there. Saurabh and Shibani made up their minds to go there and urged us to come along. Even though there is still almost daily news of the police and army's anti-terrorist operations in the valley, we decided to take the plunge and go there. But first let me take you to Shimla where we got to after celebrating Aanvi's 4th birthday in Delhi (Aanvi is the children's cousin - Shibani's niece) 

शिमला में जिस होटल में ठहरे थे उसका नाम Landmark है. यह होटल पहाड़ की चट्टान के बगल में बनाया गया है. इस होटल की पहली मंजिल तो एक काफी चालू सड़क पर है लेकिन इसकी छठी मंजिल माल रोड पर खुलती है. कमरे की खिड़की से शिमला का मनोरम दृश्य दिखता है. यह भारतीय सेना का गोल्फ कोर्स है और उनका एक हेलीकाप्टर हर रोज़ भारतीय सीमा से अफसरों को लाता और ले जाता है. कुमाऊ का एक लोक संगीत है जिस में’ काफल फल का वर्णन है. उसे पहली बार शिमला में चखा, बहुत मजा आया. 

In Shimla we stayed at the Landmark Hotel. The hotel is perched on a cliff so that while its "ground" floor opens out to a fairly busy road, its sixth floor opens out to the famous Mall Road! From our window we could see the entire spread of the beautiful Shimla valley, including the Indian Army's golf course to which a helicopter ferried Army officers from the borders on a seemingly daily basis! There is a famous folk song of the Kumaon region that mentions a fruit called "Kafal". I tasted Kafal for the first time in Shimla and quite enjoyed it. 

एक दिन हम जाखो (यक्ष) मंदिर गए जो वहाँ के सबसे ऊंचे पहाड़ पर स्थित है और जहाँ हनुमान जी की एक विशाल प्रतिमा है जो सारे शिमला से दिखती है. वहाँ के बन्दर मशहूर (बदनाम) हैं. वे इतने शैतान हैं कि हाथ से प्रसाद चुराना तो रोज़ का खेल है पर मज़ेदार बात ये है कि वे लोगों का चश्मा भी चुरा लेते हैं और बड़े अंदाज़ से उन्हें पहनते हैं. एक ऐसे ही बन्दर को द्वारपाल की मूर्ति के सिर पर चढ़े फोटो में देख सकते हैं. वहाँ से हम चैल गए जहाँ महाराजा पटियाला के महल को होटल में तबदील कर दिया गया है. वहाँ हमने सेपू बड़ी और हिमांचली कढ़ी का आनंद लिया. फिर हमने उस जगह को भी देखा जहाँ भारत-पाकिस्तान की 1971 लड़ाई के बाद इंदिरा गाँधी और ज़ुल्फ़िकार भुट्टो में शिमला समझौते की बातचीत हुई थी.

One day we went to the Jakhu temple which is located on the highest mountain around the Shimla valley. But it is notorious for its monkeys. The monkeys are so brazen that not only do they steal/snatch the food offerings that devotees bring along with them, but also things like sunglasses, which they proceed to wear with much pomp and glee! You can see a monkey perched on the statue of the gatekeeper in the photo above. We also went to the palace of the Maharaja of Patiala, that has been converted into a grand hotel. We had a great meal there with local delicacies such as "Sepu Badi" (a vegetable nugget) and "Himachali Kadhi" (a thick curry). We also saw the place where the famous Shimla Accord was signed between Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Bhutto to end hostilities between India and Pakistan in 1971.

शिमला के मॉल रोड पर गाड़ियाँ नहीं जा सकती हैं. हमारे होटल से मॉल रोड की दुकानें करीब दो किलोमीटर दूर थीं. अश्वनी जी और दीपा जी तो वहाँ हर रोज़ ही पैदल जाते थे और मुझे भी चलने को प्रोत्साहित करते थे. एक दिन गहरे बादल छाये थे और मिश्राजी भी इनके साथ निकल गए. वहाँ जाने पर भयंकर तूफ़ान आ गया और ओले पड़ने लगे. ओले भी ऐसे की एक-एक ओला अंगूर जितना पर बेहद सख्त. अश्वनी जी और दीपा जी ने तो किसी दुकान में शरण ले ली, मिश्राजी खुले मैदान में फँस गए और अच्छे से ओलों से पिट कर लौटे.

Shimla's Mall Road is a "no-car" zone. The shops of Mall Road were about 2 kms from our hotel. Ashvani ji and Deepa ji (Shibani's parents, who were traveling with us) would walk up there almost daily and encourage me to walk along with them...you can see me looking a bit puffed out in the photo :) .. But one (cloudy) day, off they went again (sans me) and sure enough the brewing storm let loose upon them. So much so that it started hailing. And the hailstones were truly that.. stones (the size of grapes!). Ashvani ji and Deepa ji wisely took shelter in a shop but Mr Misra got stuck in open ground and took a good beating!

हम शिमला से कालका toytrain से गए. बाहर का दृश्य तो सुन्दर था ही पर दोपहर का समय था और गर्मी अपनी चरम सीमा पर थी toytrain में पंखा भी नहीं था. हमारा बुरा हाल हो गया था. फिर कालका पहुँच कर टैक्सी वाले से बहस, शिमला से चंडीगढ़ तक का रास्ता बड़ी मुश्किल से तय हुआ. चंडीगढ़ में समय कम था पर वहाँ हमने rock garden, सुखना झील तथा museum देखा. rock garden की भूल भुलैया में खोने का डर था और flight का समय भी हो चला था इसलिए जहाँ तक पहुंचे थे वहाँ से उलटे पाँव वापस आ गए. 

From Shimla we went down to Kalka on the "Toy Train". It was pretty as a postcard on the outside but it was after all the Indian summer and we were descending from the gorgeous, cool mountains to the burning hot plains. Add to that the lack of a fan (let alone being  air conditioned), and you can imagine how we struggled through that train ride. Unfortunately there was more in store for us - an argumentative taxi driver who drove us from Kalka to Chandigarh, and then rushing through Chandigarh for lack of time. But we managed to see the famous Rock Garden, Sukhna lake and the museum. Ultimately we decided to sacrifice the other tourist things in Chandigarh for fear of missing our flight to Srinagar.


काश्मीर!!!!!!! चंडीगढ़ से श्रीनगर हवाई जहाज से आये. क्योंकि हवाई अड्डे की पटरी खाली नहीं थी हमने श्रीनगर के पांच छ: चक्कर लगाये. हर बार लगता था कि इस बार तो पाकिस्तान शासित कश्मीर के ऊपर आ गए. पर शायद नहीं.

And then finally, Kashmir...!!!!!!! Our flight from Chandigarh had to circle over Srinagar airport for some time due to congestion. I kept wondering if we were flying over the contentious Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.. but thankfully not! 

अंततः हम कश्मीर आ ही गए! वहाँ पहुँच कर देखा कि हर सड़क के चौराहे पर भारतीय सेना और काश्मीर पुलिस के जवान पहरा दे रहे थे भरी मशीनगन लिए. पर एक बार इसे भूल जाएँ तो पाते हैं कि यहाँ की हर बात ही निराली है. निशात बाग़, शालीमार बाग़, चश्मेशाही और परी महल में फूलों से लदी कतारें, झरने और ऊंचे ऊंचे चिनार और देवदार के पेड़. इन सबके पीछे हिमालय की बर्फ से ढंकी ऊंची चोटियाँ और उनसे अठखेलियाँ करता हुआ एक नन्हा सा बादल का टुकड़ा! सामने विशाल डल झील जिनमे रंग बिरंगे शिकारे तैर रहे थे. किनारे पर हाउसबोट की कतारें थीं.

And so we were finally in Kashmir. Upon arriving we couldn't but help notice the very visible presence of armed soldiers guarding almost every street corner. These were men and women from the Indian army as well as police forces, armed with heavy machine guns and often in armoured, mounted carriers. Yes it's all a bit daunting, but once you look beyond it, you soon get enchanted by the place. The renown Nishat and Shalimar gardens, Chashme-Shaahi and Pari Mahal laden with flowers, lined with beautiful fountains and 400 year old Deodar trees...with a magnificent backdrop of snow peaks and a tiny speck of cloud playing peek-a-boo in an otherwise cloudless blue sky! All overlooking the enormous Dal lake which on one-side was lined with house boats, and dotted with colourful Shikaras (small Kashmiri boats).

वहाँ हमने हाउसबोट के अजीबोग़रीब नाम भी पढ़े. एक मेलबोर्न था तो दूसरा सिडनी. हम "डेरा" नाम के हाउसबोट में ठहरे थे जिसके देखभाल करने वाले युवक का बड़ा प्यारा नाम था फिरदौस, याने स्वर्ग. सौरभ ने जब अपने हाउसबोट के बारे में पूछा कि आतंकवाद से कोई समस्या तो नहीं हुई थी तो उसने हाउसबोट पर गोलियों से हुए छेद दिखाए, पर इस समय वहाँ की जनता आतंकवाद से ऊब चुकी है और हमने जिससे भी इस बारे में बातें की वह उस बुरे समय को भूल जाना चाहता है और वो समय फिर वापस न आये इसकी दुआ करता था. एक बात जो कमाल की दिखी कि वहाँ लड़कियां बड़ी तादाद में पढने जाती हैं, भले ही उन्होंने बुर्का या चादर ढक रखी हो.

Some of these houseboats had unexpected and unusual names like "Melbourne" and "Sydney"! We stayed in a houseboat called "Dera" (meaning simply "house"). Our caretaker was a young man with a charming name - Firdaus, meaning "heaven". Saurabh asked him if he had ever feared for his own life during the 20-year long militancy. He smiled and pointed out the bullet holes in the wall of the very room in which Saurabh and Shibani were staying! It was quite evident to us that the people of Kashmir are fed up of the scourge of terrorism. Whomever we spoke to seemed to want to move on from those lost 20 years, and was praying that those times didn't return. What was truly pleasing was to see girls going to school in large numbers. Yes they wore burkhas or chadors, but they nevertheless proudly went to school.

जब हम श्रीनगर में थे उस समय सौरभ और परिवार सोनामर्ग में आनंद ले रहा था. वे वहाँ से वापिस श्रीनगर आये और हमें उसी गाड़ी में बिठा कर गुलमर्ग के लिए निकल गए. गुलमर्ग में घोड़े पर चढ़ने का जीवन का पहला अनुभव था. पहले तो मैं बहुत डरी पर घोड़े को सम्भालने वाला बड़ा समझदार और बातूनी था. करीब तीन किलोमीटर के सफ़र में वो मुझे पकड़ा रहा और बात कर कर के मेरा भय दूर करता रहा. वो बार बार कह रहा था काका तो अच्छी तरह घोड़े पर बैठे हैं पर काकी तो गयी. हम सब बहुत हँसे. 

When we arrived in Srinagar, Saurabh & family were enjoying themselves in Sonamarg. They came back to Srinagar enroute to Gulmarg and picked us up. In Gulmarg I rode a horse for the VERY first time in my life! I was quite scared but the young horse-minder was very understanding and chatty. He held on to me for almost all of the 3 km ride and kept jabbering away just to keep me distracted. His favourite line was "Look, Uncle is sitting so well on his horse, but poor Aunty is about to knock off!" Everyone (including me!) had a good laugh at my expense.

हम जब गुलमर्ग में थे तो भारत-पाकिस्तान सीमा (LOC) से 20 किलोमीटर और रानीखेत में भारत-चीन सीमा से लगभग 50 किलोमीटर दूर थे. एक अजीब सी अनुभूति हुई कि यहीं पर भारतीय जवानों ने लड़ाई लड़ी थी.

In Gulmarg we were only about 20 kms from the Line of control (LOC) between India and Pakistan, and similarly about 50 kms from the Indo China border in Ranikhet. (Having lived through India's wars with both Pakistan and China), I felt strange standing in the very places where the Indian soldiers had fought and sacrificed so much. 

I requested Aarushi to write an account of her travels through Jammu & Kashmir along with Saurabh, Shibani, Rishabh and Aadya, as they traveled separately from us for part of this trip. So here it is in her own unique voice:

"Hi this is Aarushi. I am writing about the bits of our trip to Laddakh and Kashmir that we did without Baba and Dadi. We flew from Delhi to Leh which is the largest city in the Laddakh region. Laddakh is the northernmost part of India and borders with Tibet. From the aeroplane we could see the wall of the Himalayas that suddenly rose up. First there were lots and lots of snow-capped mountains, then there were brown desert mountains like in this photo. But wherever there was a river (like in this photo), we could see a line of blue or green water and green trees along the river. In this photo you can see the Zanskar river (left) flowing into the famous Indus river (right and below)/

On our first day in Leh, we did nothing. This was because Leh is at 3,500m altitude and the air is very thin. So it takes the body some time to get used to the thin air. If you do too much when you first get there, you can get altitude sickness. All of us found it hard to breathe there. But soon we started going for walks. We went to some shops and restaurants like the Tibet Kitchen. The people in Laddakh are Tibetans, and they are very nice and friendly. We saw a monastery in Alchi, and also Magnetic Hill (photo) where you can see something weird - if you leave your car at the bottom of the hill (in the middle of the photo), you will soon see your car rolling up the slope by itself (the car goes from the middle to the left in the photo!!) Even looking at the photo, you will think that the road is first going down then up. But in reality it is the other way round. Dad told me that this was an optical illusion caused by the mountains and the valley and not being able to see the horizon.

The highlight of our Laddakh trip was camping at Pangong Lake right at the border with Tibet. We saw a lot of places that were in the “3 Idiots” Hindi movie - we even stopped by at the “Rancho” school and then Pangong Lake was where they filmed the last scene of the movie (like in the photo here). On the way to Pangong Lake we drove over a mountain called Chang La, which was at 5,300m altitude. We stopped at the top of the mountain to have the Maggi noodles (yummy) they were selling at the shop there, but we could barely breathe! 


From Leh we flew to Srinagar. We saw all the beautiful and famous gardens of Srinagar like Nishat Bag and Shalimar Bag. We also met our cousins Dhruv and Aanya at the Almond Villa which is owned by Nani’s cousin and his wife (who Mum told me, was a real Princess - the grand daughter of the last King of Kashmir!). We stayed in a houseboat called New Alexandra on the Dal Lake, and went to and from in a small boat called a Shikara.

We then spent 4 nights in Sonamarg, which was just a beautiful place. Sushim mama and Shveta mami had gone there last year with Nana, Nani and Aanvi. Sushim mama had met a trekking guide there who took them on some great treks. So Mum and Dad got the same man to also take us trekking. We went up the mountains and down the valleys all three days that we were there, and it was just great. I was very tired going up the mountains but it was so much fun and we saw some nice views. 

We saw some beautiful places and even played in the snow - in summer! We hired sleighs and went down the slopes many times. It reminded me of the fun we had with Aryan and Amit Fufaji in Canada. I have attached photos of the beautiful mountains and also of us being taken up the slope on the sleighs! 






In Gulmarg we trekked out into an amazing valley of flowers. We were there for most of the morning and hardly anyone else was there. But otherwise there were lots of tourists everywhere in Kashmir.  Strangely though, we noticed that whenever they took photos, it was either everyone standing looking really serious, or posing badly. So I have attached our “Kashmir tourist photo”of all of us standing in an amazingly beautiful place but pretending to be really serious!" 

इस बार हमने वे सारे स्थान देख लिए जिनके बारे में सपने ही देखा करते थे. अब आने वाले छ: महीनों में कुछ और भी देखेंगे जिनका ज़िक्र हमारे दूसरे साथी करेंगे.

I feel fortunate that so far on this one-year family Indian adventure I have seen places that I had previously only dreamed about. I am eagerly looking forward to the coming 6 months in which we have more travel plans. Other members of my family will write their accounts of these travels.

“जाने कैसे सपनों में खो गयीं अँखियाँ मैं तो हूँ जागी मेरी सो गयीं अँखियाँ”

"The eyes are lost in strange dreams, my eyes are asleep but I am fully awake"